cannabisnews.com: Northern Va. Families Move to Colorado
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Northern Va. Families Move to Colorado
Posted by CN Staff on April 12, 2014 at 16:58:26 PT
By Tom Jackman
Source: Washington Post
Colorado -- For the parents of children with intractable epilepsy, the stream of constant seizures, emergency room visits and powerful medications can become a demoralizing blur. Beth Collins of Fairfax County said her teenage daughter suffered as many as 300 epileptic seizures per day.“There were days when I just laid in bed with her and prayed,” Collins said, “and watched her because I wasn’t sure what would happen.” Now, the seizures have all but stopped. Each day, Collins gives her daughter Jennifer a dose of medical marijuana oil from a syringe, as any parent might administer liquid medicine to a child.
But Collins can’t offer the cannabis extract from her Fairfax kitchen, where she raised Jennifer for 14 years. Instead, she does so in a small two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs. Collins is one of a pair of Northern Virginia mothers and daughters who, after trying various combinations of drugs and treatments for their children, have packed up and moved recently to Colorado to try medical marijuana oil to battle the children’s debilitating seizures. Because Virginia law does not allow for the sale of medical marijuana or its extracts, the families have elected to move 1,700 miles so their children can have a chance at a normal life.“I feel a lot better,” Jennifer said of the treatment, which is scientifically untested. “I can focus more, I’m doing better on tests in school. My memory’s improved a lot.” Her seizures are “not completely gone,” but her mother said that “we’ve had days where I’ve seen very few, maybe one or two. That’s a major decrease.”Former South Riding resident Dara Lightle has watched her 9-year-old daughter move from not only seizures, but also “unbelievable anger, kicking and screaming at me” to reading for the first time and discarding all other drugs. “We’re grateful to be here” in Colorado, Lightle said, though she considers herself and daughter “medical refugees.”The Northern Virginia families’ efforts are part of a growing national migration toward the seemingly life-changing marijuana oil. More than 100 families have moved to Colorado Springs in recent months to obtain the oil, and mothers have launched lobbying efforts in many states to legalize medical marijuana for conditions such as epilepsy.Meanwhile, other Virginia families watch with envy, unable to uproot their families but hopeful that the Old Dominion will consider a change in its marijuana laws, at least for this oil — which has marijuana’s intoxicating ingredient, THC, removed — and this condition. Virginia has long been reluctant to consider legalizing medical marijuana, and previous pushes for legalization in the General Assembly have quickly died.But now supporters have a new, important ally: recently elected Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a pediatric neurologist who has treated children with epilepsy for years. He said in an interview that he is going to help craft legislation next year that would allow certain Virginia residents to use medical marijuana for epilepsy, though he acknowledges that scientific research has not caught up with the glowing anecdotal research emerging from Colorado, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2000.Northam said that a British company, GW Pharmaceuticals, has been approved for a study in the United States using a cannabis extract for patients with Dravet syndrome, a particularly severe form of epilepsy.Source: Washington Post (DC) Author: Tom Jackman Published: April 12, 2014Copyright: 2014 Washington Post CompanyContact: letters washpost.com Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/74ccMnGaCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 13, 2014 at 05:01:17 PT
AggieCajun
Good morning! It's good to see you and thank you! We are slowly winning. Rome wasn't built in a day either but it was built.
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Comment #2 posted by AggieCajun on April 13, 2014 at 03:21:37 PT:
The money train
I'm with you Observer. They are being paid all too well already because of the war on drugs.They'll "Protect and Serve" their own interests. Screw the people.Love you Friend(s) of Marijuana. Keep up the fight. We appear to be slowly winning (like watching paint dry - or better yet, grass grow).
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Comment #1 posted by observer on April 12, 2014 at 17:46:06 PT
Police Job Number One in Fairfax
re "Beth Collins of Fairfax County said her teenage daughter suffered as many as 300 epileptic seizures per day... Now, the seizures have all but stopped. Each day, Collins gives her daughter Jennifer a dose of medical marijuana oil from a syringe, as any parent might administer liquid medicine to a child. But Collins can’t offer the cannabis extract from her Fairfax kitchen..."Ok: we got it that marijuana might help some people under certain circumstances. But if pot is legalized, what about the police jobs and salaries that will be lost? In Fairfax County Virginia (and elsewhere) police salaries and career opportunities trump paltry considerations about "medicine" and hurting people. Police are hurting for money, especially Fairfax County Virginia police - who hardly make anything at all! Understaffed (in light of the narcotics epidemic threatening Fairfax County Virginia children), outgunned by gangsters, underpaid (Fairfax police barely break 60k starting salary in an expensive location to live), it is just not fair to Fairfax police to ask them to even consider allowing the people of Fairfax to go unarrested, unfined, and un-jailed for using pot. As elsewhere, busting pot smokers is "Job Number 1" for Fairfax police, and we can hardly ask them to stop that fat income flow. Not to mention excuse for stopping and searching anyone, anywhere, anytime (smelled pot). As underpaid and understaffed as police are in Fairfax. No, pot legalization won't happen in Fairfax Virginia because the most important and most listen-to constituency in Fairfax (government police) won't allow it. The "will of the people" isn't a consideration at all.
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